$26,874 is the latest recorded historical all-time-high for Bitcoin as it experienced a 10% gain over the Christmas weekend.
At the start of the year, reaching $20,000 seemed like aeons away, especially after Bitcoin hit a bottom of $4,000 in March after the Black Thursday market crash. Fast forward to the last week of November when Bitcoin failed to test the $20,000 mark, market analysts and crypto advocates such as Tone Vays predicted that it would only be end December of early January before Bitcoin would be able to clear the milestone recorded during the 2017 bull run.
In the span of three weeks, Bitcoin demolished $20,000 with certainty, and then moved on in the next two short weeks to reach a staggering $26,800 with only a handful of days left to the new year. This brings Bitcoin’s year-to-date (YTD) returns to 274.89% with its market capitalization approaching $500 billion closely.
Average transaction fees for Bitcoin transactions have remained at a steady $6.42 with no spikes seen since December 21.
Bitcoin’s YTD returns still cannot compare to the YTD returns of Ethereum, the world’s second-most capitalized digital asset recorded this year so far at a whopping 404%. However, Bitcoin’s current growth rate has exceeded traders’ expectations for the year in a market which has been buoyed by increased institutional and retail investors, drawn in by Bitcoin’s changing status as a strong alternative asset which can be used to generate and preserve wealth, and also as a hedge against inflation.
